Iranian Update April 2004
The ongoing miracles associated with the Lord’s work with our
Iranian brethren continue.
Fresh Preaching
Firstly, we’d like to update you about preaching progress. A
great feature of our Iranian brethren is their zeal to preach,
despite the evident dangers associated with preaching to
Moslems. Converts from Islam to Christianity are declared
murtad, and under the death sentence, which can be executed by
any citizen. Those who preach intending to convert Moslems are
likewise placed under the death sentence. Yet despite this, and
perhaps spurred by it, the preaching of the Gospel in these
circumstances is going ahead, first century style.
A BBFU co-worker was able to spend some time in Azerbaijan, and
met two Iranian contacts who made the difficult and risky
journey from Iran over the border in order to be baptized; we’re
happy to say that they were interviewed and baptized in the
presence of the Iranian refugee brethren already holed up there.
Performing baptisms in Iran is really taking ones life in their
hands, especially as we are under surveillance, and therefore it
is best wherever possible that our contacts meet us in another
country. It makes quite a salutary image for the contacts- for
here are fellow Iranians who once enjoyed a prosperous Tehran
life, now holed up in relative poverty in another, poorer
country, fearing for their lives, living a stressful and
uncertain existence with no easy way ahead for them. And all
this- because they were baptized. So the contacts are faced
clearly with the obvious and radical implications of following
Christ.
Photo: The two newly baptized brethren [centre and right] who
came from Iran to Azerbaijan for baptism, along with one of the
Iranian brethren there who is on the run.
On another front, a visit was made to the Iranian refugee
brethren holed up in Kurdistan, just the other side of the
Iranian border. Preaching has been very responsive here and a
large number of Bible Basics in Kurdish, Farsi, Arabic and
Turkish have been distributed. We do continue the appeal for
support to enable this book to be kept in print, as it is the
only comprehensive witness to our faith which we have in those
languages. We are very pleased to report that after excellent
confessions of faith, a total of 6 Iranian brethren and sisters
were baptized.
One of these, brother F, has an amazing Bible knowledge. He has
been involved with several churches but realized their errors.
An American-run evangelical group in the town where they are
living as refugees would only baptize them if they paid a tithe!
As desperately poor refugees living on their savings and a few
donations from relatives over the border, this just highlights
the terribly mercenary attitude that seems to plague to many
groups, and one is truly relieved that these very dear people
have been saved out of these abusive systems.
Photo: Bro F and his sister wife and another newly baptized
sister
We mentioned in a previous carelink message that there are
several contacts in Iran who have completed Bible Basics and are
likely ready for baptism. Thanks to funds donated we were able
to help two of them come over the border to be baptized, and
with the provision of more funds there are others whom we could
likewise invite over the border to have discussions with us and
[we hope] to be baptized if they are ready. Anyone interested in
sponsoring these cases should please contact us as soon as
possible.
Welfare Issues And Prayer Points
- Carelink readers may recall our mention
of the baptism of brother R from Iran. He came out of Iran to
meet us last year and was baptized, and then returned there.
He’s been in touch with us every few days until a few weeks ago,
he suddenly stopped. We are very concerned for his safety,
especially knowing that Iran security agents are actively
seeking to hack emails and bug telephones of Christian converts.
We ask for your prayers for our very zealous brother.
- Brother S was a professor of fine art in
Iran. He expressed his Christian faith to his students through
art, painting a wonderful copy of Raphael’s rendition of the
crucifixion. He was warned to desist, but refused. Then, two of
his colleagues were arrested and imprisoned for association with
him; he now understands that subsequently they were given the
death sentence. So he grabbed his wife and two young children
and fled the country immediately. They live in poverty in the
refugee area of a small town, with all the indicators of a
family once used to living a good life but now suddenly plunged
into poverty. Our brother is a fine painter, and he gave us some
scans of his paintings. You can view them at
www.carelinks.net/paintings.htm
. We have removed his signatures
from the paintings. He is a very fine artist, and is continuing
his work as a refugee.
One practical way that you could get
support for our brethren is to commission a painting from our
brother. He’s very good at doing portraits. So what we are
suggesting is that you email us photos of yourself or loved
ones, or maybe of your ecclesial hall, and our brother will
paint a portrait from the photo. We’d hope that you could then
make a donation for this. Here’s a way that we can provide a
fishing rod rather than a fish, as it were. If, say, 10 brethren
or sisters or ecclesias would sponsor 10 such portraits, the
donations might raise up to $2000 towards the huge welfare
responsibilities which we now have for our Iranian brethren and
sisters.
So please do share this possibility with others and
let’s see what can be done to raise funds for these new cases of
need which have just now emerged. They are not supported by any
other organization in the brotherhood apart from the Bible
Basics Follow Up Fund. The very wrong thing is that the Turkish
Government doesn’t allow such refugees to work in Turkey- so
they have to support themselves either from their savings or
from donations.
Photo: Brother S
Photo: Brother S with his two children. He grabbed two beloved
portraits he’d painted of dear family members [hence we’ve had
to cover up the faces] as they fled their home. They got very
scrunched up- as they fled without passports, and paid their
savings to smugglers to smuggle them over the mountains into the
Turkish side of Kurdistan.
We ask for your prayers that their
appeal to the UNHCR will be accepted.
- Brother H comes from a family which were once leading members
of an outlawed Communist party in Iran. His father was a major
leader, and he was given the death sentence- and, as so often
happens, his whole family [wife and children] were declared
worthy of death. One of the sons- who is now our brother H- was
arrested and spent 42 days undergoing torture and
interrogations. He subsequently was smuggled out of Iran without
a passport and there, having realized the folly of both Islam
and Communism, dedicated himself to find God in truth; he was
baptized some months ago.
Photo: Brother H [far right] along with his parents [far left]
and sisters, at the humble birthday party of one of them which
we attended. She is now 20 but has spent her formative years
living in constant fear and with little education. He is the
only family member baptized. They are all under the death
sentence in Iran because of their father’s political activities.
Brother H and his family have been turned down by the UNHCR-
along with the majority of Iranian asylum seekers, no matter how
sincere their case. The case has been closed by UNHCR and will
not be reopened despite our pressurizing for this. It all seems
so unfair, as they really have a very clearly documented case-
replete with court judgments, prison records etc. So they face
deportation to Iran, which would mean the death sentence. The
only other option is that when threatened with deportation they
flee illegally over the border into Iraq. This too is a very
dangerous thing to attempt.
It’s easy to think ‘Well, the
Truth
will spread to Iraq’, but it’s a hard thing to smuggle yourself,
your ageing parents and younger siblings over the mountains into
a war torn country, where you have to somehow find somewhere to
live- and somehow find money to live on. We are aware that only
our brother is baptized and the rest of the family aren’t, but
we do feel that we have a Christian duty towards them. Any who
feel moved to support them- and the BBFU now has really very low
funds- please contact us. And if you can’t then, please, do pray
for them.
- Brother H [another one!] has been accepted by UNHCR, along
with his unbaptized wife, and they are now being taken care of
by an American ecclesia which he hopes to join, God willing,
when he arrives in the USA. We give thanks to God for this great
blessing, remembering that he is still awaiting final exit
papers in an uncertain situation.
- There were several contacts who were not yet ready for
baptism. Although they’re not yet baptized, their plight is
really very sad. These refugees are given no free health care,
no state benefits, and rely solely on donations from their
remaining friends or families back in Iran or elsewhere. The
UNHCR application and appeal process can take even years to work
through- and they aren’t allowed legally to work during that
time. Those who don’t have such support, or whose supporters are
themselves persecuted, are then left in an awful situation - they
either go back to death or imprisonment in Iran, or steal or
sell their bodies to stay alive. Those who are sick or elderly
are in a very bad situation.
One of our new brethren, who had
been a male nurse back in Iran, spends a lot of his time caring
for such people and even performing minor surgeries which he is
totally unqualified to do, with poor materials and little
hygiene. By doing so he too is spreading the Truth by his
witness. So for those contacts whom we have in these situations,
we also pray.
Most of these people were once the families of
intellectuals or Christian preachers or those otherwise picked
on by the Iranian regime as ‘enemies of the 1979 Islamic
Revolution’; they were used to a good life. Significantly and
understandably, they are ashamed of their poverty, and despite
many such meetings with such folk, we were never once asked for
help. Indeed, we were offered instead their hospitality and
generosity.
- Our two brethren still stuck in Istanbul have been visited by
several visitors recently, including some from the CBM, and have
been found strong in the faith. They are eagerly looking forward
to getting to Canada, but the long wait and endless bureaucratic
hassles are enough to wear down the most buoyant of spirits.
We have brought many urgent and needy and wonderful brethren
and contacts before you in this carelink. Please, try to do what
you can for them, and please do pray for them. We’d also like to
thank you for your prayers for our brethren and sisters who are
involved with this dangerous and challenging work. They testify
to a special sense of God’s blessing, protection and presence in
their work, thanks to your prayers.